Loss
by AlternativeRocker
Summary: Alfred is gone and it finally hits Bruce that he has nobody. Or does he? Short one shot.


**Authors Note: **First go at Batman fanfiction. Based on Michelle Pfeiffer's version of Selina/Catwoman in Batman Returns. Prompt from FreekyDisaster18 of "one has suffered family death so other is there to lean on".

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing to do with Batman or the characters.

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Since his parents had died when Bruce was a child Alfred was his closest acquaintance. They regarded each other as family and not the kind that only cared about the other when it was necessary - they were around their friend all the time and knew how to read their emotions perfectly. Bruce had never considered what would happen if Alfred was one day not simply a shout away.

Now he had to suddenly face up to the reality that he was alone now.

A heart attack in the middle of the night was the cause; one of the rare evenings that he had got to his bed chamber at an appropriate hour as there seemed to have been a quiet night in Gotham.

He was attempting to cope by ignoring what had happened until bottling up his grief became too much of a burden and it got the better of him while he was on a rooftop, looking down at the world he was so used to seeing from this angle. When he let his feeling take over he had assumed there was nobody nearby who would see or hear him but he was mistaken. He had forgot there was someone who turned up in his life at the most inopportune moments.

She stood watching him kneel on the damp floor, his breath ragged from the sobs that hurt her in ways she couldn't have expected. They had barely laid eyes on each other in the past month but she had heard of his loss and just had not known how to approach him about it until this particular evening. His hands were covering his eyes so she continued to stay silent and moved across to him before crouching in front of his shaking figure.

"The all-powerful Batman finally showing some emotion? I know people who would pay to see this!" She did not mean to sound scathing or cruel, her alter-ego brought it out in her, and as Bruce looked up at her she regretted letting the words escape her lips because he looked completely shattered and now angry at the woman in the black catsuit.

"I keep trying to believe you_ do_ have a good person inside of you but god Selina, you do make it difficult! I suppose you know what my so called emotion is for?"

"Of course I do, and honestly I am sorry for that and what I say. You shouldn't try to believe in me, I am beyond any sort of moral help."

"I want to believe in you though, so just allow me something to hold on to in my life."

Selina edged forward on the ground and slowly wrapped one of her hands around his. With her free hand she reached up and removed her mask, her blonde waves falling across her face and shoulders. He still had his on but she felt as though it would somehow damage him more if he showed his vulnerability in this sense as well.

"Maybe this will make me less catty." He managed to roll his eyes at her awful pun before dropping his gaze to their now entwined fingers and hesitantly squeezed her hand in an attempt to release some of what he felt for both her and the pain that had been coursing around his body for weeks. He rand his other fingertips through her hair as their next movement, which she raised no objections to nor when his gloves ghosted over her cheek and mouth.

However, the moment he began to lean forward to kiss her she tried to voice her concern, "Bruce, you're hurt, you will regret this when you are back in your correct frame of mind. I don't want to make you feel anything worse towards either of us. We have too fragile a bond to ruin on a night like this."

He smiled at her high regard for his well-being but had no other wish than to feel more connected to her.

"Selina, please, I refuse to let whatever happens next ruin us - it may even make us stronger... I don't know what else to do," he whispered, tears running down his mask one again, this time affecting his partner to the extent she had numerous errant trails of tears on her pale face also.

She spent no more time pausing to think and pressed her lips to his, knowing Bruce needed to realise he was wanted by somebody who truly understood him now that Alfred has disappeared from his life. Still unsure of where this would take them or how they would come to feel about this event, she kissed him for all she was worth, trying to take all he was going through and put it inside her so that he would possibly go back to the man she had grown to love.


End file.
